Can encourage better behavior from north korea as opposed to imposing sanctions now and trying to coerce north korea into the fold. That is a difference of opinion of strategy. China really believes we ought to be engaged with north korea. United states feels every time weve tried to engage with north korea, they basically turnaround and failed to respond. What is the most important thing the chinese leaders want from you every day . The want greater cooperation with United States, because the understand how important United States is for their own economy. So much of what they sell and they produce is exported all around the world. They want the u. S. Economy to be stronger as quickly as possible, because it means there will be able to continue to export. As much as theyre trying to move from an export driven economy to a more domestic consumption based economy, they will still rely heavily on exports. The more americans are working, the more money they have in their pockets, the more they will be shopping in stores, and so much of what they buy is made from many other countries, including china. The healthier the u. S. Economy is, the more that china will export. That means jobs for the Chinese People. When you talk to leaders, how much are they actually were it about United States . Worried about United States . I think United States is incredibly important to china, and recognize that. Not only in very practical ways, but in another way, more psychological. There is a 150 year history were china has been trying to check itself up in big shin itself upr status. There is this lingering psychological mindset of china being victimized by the great powers. It is kind of a struggle between chinas new confidence and success, and these old feelings, is why these visits to ensure rattled and a bit. Asia rattle them a bit. Way back at the beginning of notlast century , japan only occupy it, but every other great power had pieces of it. Is a struggle between a feeling of being a victim, and agents superiority. It is an absolute contradiction. Two sides of the same mind. In the end, a new sense of chinese confidence and a sense of respect from the world will help cure this historical the element. Dilemma. This is the reason that your job is so hard, because sometimes people things we think are straightforward do you have a an example of that, something that was understood there as something you had to deal with and jump on . Just for example, the dispute with japan on these islands, the chinese believe that the United States supports japan and puts japan up to the purchase of the islands simply because we have a treaty with japan. They believe that we therefore side with japan on the islands issue because we have a treaty that says we will come to the defense of japan. But we have defense treaties with many other countries. It does not mean that we agree with the actions of all of our allies. Trying to make that differentiation has been very difficult. I was wondering what it was like for you personally. You became an instant celebrity in china. People saw you buying your own coffee at starbucks, carrying your own luggage, and they could not imagine what was that like . It was overwhelming at first. It went viral. The pictures of us in the u. S. A. We were not even in china somehow when the virus. Went viral. You were instantly recognized. Peddlers and merchants on the great wall, we were asked by everybody for pictures. It was overwhelming, but for a flattering. The chinese have been very warm and gracious. How much does it matter to them that your father was born in china . It is a source of great pride that i am a chineseamerican. My ancestors are all from china. My wifes family is from china as well. In some way, they expect you to take the chinese side and all of the issues . [applause] [laughter] there was commentary over the internet, a look at this commerce secretary, he may be chinese on the inside, but he is white on the outside. A bill on the outside, white on the inside it. Yellow on the outside, white on the inside. They called me a banana. [laughter] other said, he will not side with china. He will espouse u. S. Policy 100 . I believe i have a slightly different perspective, that special perspective of history and culture, understanding my parents immigrant background. I want to serve as a bridge between the u. S. And china. I believe that many of the problems we face in the world cannot be solved without the active collaboration of u. S. And china. And when the history books to say it was china and United States working together that solve these problems, instead of the history books and blaming the United States and china for failing to respond to things like climate change. Having history books ignore the incredible contributions of china over thousands of years towards civilization, and just say, United States and china missed the opportunity and skirted up. Screwed it up. We have two chinese immigrant families representing america. It is hard to imagine it in reverse from the chinese side. Theyre not an immigrantbased society. Do they take it as an honor . Yes. They also want to claim him. You know, as part of the Greater China community. And then there is a bit of a disappointment, but it is an amazing moment in american history. I guess you want over there just before or after the big confrontation in august over the debt crisis. What has been their view of how our political system is working, whether we are worthy partner . The views of a top Chinese Government leaders is to have great confidence in the u. S. Economy. They have made those statements to the top american leaders that have gone, all the way from Vice President biden, and xi jinping met with president obama in february of last year. They expressed great confidence in United States. Theyre always asking about how the recovery is going. They believe that we will get our fiscal house in order. They know how dependent they are, and that is why they want a strong to the understand the internal struggle between the president and congress . I think theyre starting to understand that more and more. The ambassadors to have our government officials about studied. United states they have are government officials who have studied in the United States. The congress does not necessarily speak for the president. He said something quite interesting. He said he could not understand why the u. S. Government should have three branches, in effect three governments within a government because it was difficult to get stuff done. [laughter] he was right. That is for sure. [laughter] the New York Times called the new leaders of china and meritocracy of mediocrity. A meritocracy of mediocrity. There is talk about the last 10 years being the lost decade, where nothing much happened. If you turn that around a little bit i admit, there are a lot of problems and many things were and salt. Unsolved. It was a Pretty Amazing tenures nonetheless. There were instabilities ten yeayears nonetheless. There were instabilities. When you look at the actual record, it is not bad. They more than got through. It is undeniably true it is hard to understand china in any terms, but if you cannot maintain the two opposite things happening at once, it is really difficult to understand what is going on. Where is that tension right now, as to talk about this new era you talk about this new era . For a long time, people have thought the political reform had to accompany economic reform. Ultimately, i believe it will, but the question is when. When do they run out of rope, have been one side of their system reforming and one side in almost a state of stasis . When xi jinping is in office, can at this continuity continue . Or can they get another decade out of this system . We believe in United States government the part of their success in being able to enact economic reform and to address the growing disparity between the haves and havenots, there has to be reform of the Financial Services sector. This dependence on state owned or government owned businesses, less dependence on state owned or governmentowned businesses. If their own entrepreneurs and inventors and scientists are to create an infant after putting a lot of hard earned money and time and sweat create and invent after putting a lot of hard earned money and time and sweat, they need to make sure that there ideas are not stolen either. Rule of law, transparency, a neutral legal system how much time do you spend on piracy issues . System . How much time do you spend on piracy issues . A lot of time. The president was very clear the drive got to enforce the rules to insure fairness. China has benefited enormously from its secession from the wto. If we and United States are ever to have additional trade agreements with other countries, the American People and American Congress have to believe that we will make sure that when we lower barriers and open our markets to companies from other countries, but those other countries will also do the same for america. That is why the president was very clear in the campaign. Were going to hold other countries feet to the fire to ensure a level playing field. Do you think this is something that chinese leaders respond to . Yes. The chinese leaders will try to give a push and see if you back up. And if you do, they will give you another push. They do respect strength. At some point you have to say, we cannot back up any more. On some of these trade issues, that is what has happened. Of course the chinese do not like it. I think they do understand National Interest and defending it. Even more delicate is these human rights issues. Take us behind the scenes. There was a miscommunication betwe. I cannot reveal everything. Let me say a few things. When we brought him into the embassy, he had severe medical conditions that we had to attend to. It was on that basis that we brought him into the embassy. When he came into the embassy, he never wanted to go to United States. He wanted to stay in china. He wanted to be a freedom fighter. All of our discussions with the chinese are about how we could get him back into chinese society, with protections for him and his family. He had suffered great abuse in his village in the province. He wanted to be free of that village. That is what the discussions were all about. Secretary clinton was about to come into town for the strategic and economic dialogue. We felt no pressure to resolve this case and get them out of the embassy before she arrived. We had to make sure that he felt comfortable with whatever terms and conditions under which you would leave the embassy. And if not, were prepared to have him be our guest and reside at the embassy for many many years. At one. He did not agree to the conditions offered by the Chinese Government. He said no. At that point, we started turning around and focusing on him being a resident for quite some time. Would that have been possible . Would have been difficult, but he would not have been able to roam the grounds freely because many parts of it are offlimits, even to some of the workers. Who would pay for his, for instance, communications . In the old days you had a telephone, may be a land line, and newspapers. But now you have got the internet. How would he be able to communicate with the outside world . Those things were issues that we started investigating, and trying to develop policies over. Fortuitously, the were able to arrange we were able to arrange for his exit out of the embassy on terms that he accepted. Do you understand what was behind his change of heart . We give him lots of cell phones. [laughter] within minutes after he walked out of the embassy, he was calling everybody in talking to so many people. As he later indicated and his wife later indicated, he was bombarded by advice and comments for many people. That may have led to his change of heart. I have to say that that negotiation was one of the most successful resolutions to a very difficult problem. Both sides of leaned into it in a very pragmatic way. There was a little rhetoric, but not a lot of rhetoric. Neither side scored points against the other. It worked out. It was a tough issue. No harm, no foul at the end . It was painful for china, difficult for the United States, yet they came to a conclusion and a practical way. Is there any sense there that perhaps the United States and many around the world have stopped pressuring on human rights, political reform issues . I think that Hillary Clinton did not think that we should hold other issues hostage to the human rights issue. We had many issues to work out in china. I think there was a certain wisdom to that. I think the American Government has pressed pretty hard, but we of learn to do it in a way that does not feel quite so insulting to china. The loss of face is not so great. Gone are the days when a president goes to china and before that, they are pressured to released dissidents. Release dissidents. Each side did have to work it out. They did it in a pragmatic way. It was a very successful negotiation. Originally we were able to get him out on terms that he felt comfortable with. Free room and board at a college or university of his choice, pursuing legal studies, with a better lifestyle and the ever had in the village. Altman and he had a change of heart and went to come to the United States ultimately he had a change of heart and wanted to come to the United States. He is now here, and his family is doing very well. On the issue of human rights, but we have made a top priority. We meet with lawyer groups, humanrights groups within china, legal groups, ethnic minorities constantly. We raise these issues with the Chinese Government at every point, publicly and privately. We have grown more sophisticated and how we approach human rights issues. We still approached them. I am going to excuse myself. [applause] thank you. Nothing like following george stephanopoulos. If you raise your hands, theyre people with microphones will find you for your questions. Have been filtering through questions of upandcoming in from our web site. There are an awful lot of them. You touched on the Pacific Islands problem. I am amalgamating a bunch of problems here. How worried are you about a flareup . We saw the chinese incursion into japanese air space last week. What if any leverage do you have become, what kinds of messages are you sending by way of warning shots . The state department has been very clear from washington, d. C. That we need both sides, all sides to remain calm to avoid escalating. When you have escalation, and intended mishap can occur. Unintended mishap can occur. It is imperative that all sides try to resolve these issues among themselves in a calm, deliberate fashion to avoid escalation or provocative acts. Use the example on the economic front, the chinese like to push and see how for the can push. Is that what is going on now in this front . I do. What is worrisome about these islands is, it is one question when you have a trade dispute. It is another when you have something involving sovereignty. The chinese have this idea of core interest. Core interest means hong kong, taiwan, tibet, and now these islands. You remove a certain amount of flexibility when you Say Something is a core interest. It rose right into the brain of the sovereignty question. China is on compromising on that. Uncompromising on that. Question over here. In 2011, when secretary gates was visiting china for meetings, the chinese tested a new stealth plane that apparently was tested by the military without notification of the top civilian leadership. For the first time, we have not only china expanding with territorial, regional interest, we have china with a new Political Leadership with no military expertise. What impact do you think that will have in terms of potential miscalculations, and what have you already seen in the last 15 months in terms of civil and military relations . It is our hope that with xi jinping now heading of the militaup the military and come , being the president of china, but there will be greater coordination with the military. He has already reached out to the military within the last several weeks. Anything on that point . Question on the left here. Ambassador, is there something in the history of china that precludes them from understanding our emphasis upon humanrights . The sometimes defined human rights as the human condition. They look at the relative greater prosperity of the Chinese People compared to 30, 40, or even 15 years ago as an indicator of their advancement and human rights. Theyre talking about things like poverty and medical care and things like that. Oi sometimes think there is a bit of a disconnect. When we raise the issue of human rights, it will come back even in the newspaper articles, the will talk about, whether theyre being criticized for human rights when the Chinese People are much better off today years ago. Were then years ag neither marxism nor leninism, have a tremendous amount of emphasis on individual rights. In confucianism, it is more so family plan. In marxism and leninism, the proletariat got the rights. Everyone else had no rights. They are the enemy. In this sense, china does not have a lot of historical experience with implementing these questions. You begin to realize how much these are children of the french revolution and the british parliamentary system and the american revolution. That does not mean that it will not happen. It means that maybe there are preconditions in china, such as getting richer and more confident. With all the talk about more openness, that is all economic . Nothing major. I would say it is